


When We Grow Up

by NIKINOU, Toongrrl1990



Series: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Men World [6]
Category: Mad Men
Genre: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Baptism, Easter, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Motherhood, Pregnancy, Prequel, Sisters, Speculation, Strong Female Characters, life events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-16 07:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10566279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NIKINOU/pseuds/NIKINOU, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toongrrl1990/pseuds/Toongrrl1990
Summary: What was it like for Peggy and Anita growing up?





	1. 1939

“When is the baby coming with Mommy and Daddy?” asked a little girl named Anita Olson, “Do babies always take so long?” she stated impatiently. It has been about two days since she last saw her parents, she only knew that hospitals are where babies are picked up if they weren’t brought by the stork; she noticed that her mother’s belly was growing rounder and rounder these past few months, when she asked her mother if the baby was being made in there, her mother reacted quite irritably, hushed her, and told her to go outside and throw rocks at the laundry. “Your parents will be coming when they come, now there will be no more of impatience young lady, those that have time on their hands will sew some stitches on their sampler. Idle hands are the devil’s playthings”, said her maternal Grandmother. The young sturdy, red-haired girl angrily and deftly pushed the needle through the cloth with her plump fingers, everyone seemed so angry or quiet whenever she asked questions, her maternal Grandfather told her that if she kept begging to be brought back home, that she’ll never see the rest of her dolls again. Not much of a reader, she preferred practicing her arithmetic and even trying her hand at some long division for fun, but she stopped as soon as her grandparents made it clear that it seemed to be a strange past time for a girl.  She missed being home, she missed her bed, she missed her little painting that she did of the Holy Mother at school, she missed listening to the radio and phonograph with her parents, sitting with her father practicing her math and sewing while he listened to a baseball game and reacted with jeers or cheers, her mother hushing her father every time he was about to say something to the radio, her Mother’s cakes that she’d make when they had a good deal on sugar and other ingredients, her mirror where she’d watch the progress of her growing teeth, “When is this dumb baby going to be born-ed?” she asked of herself.

Hours passed, finally Anita heard a car roll up outside, with the door opening to where her grandmother ran out and exclaimed her pleasure at the baby. Finally Mr. and Mrs. Olson came in with a little bundle making these sounds; Mr. Olson stood a mere 5 inches taller than his wife and was compact with a bit of roundness at his face and with brown while Mrs. Olson was stout and heavy-bosomed with the large nose that her eldest daughter inherited and golden hair in a wavy up do, right now her sharp eyes were softened as she sat down with the baby. “Here is your little sister Anita, her name is Margaret, come see her.” Anita looked at the baby girl: she was very small, pale with wide blue eyes in a vivid shade, small pink lips and a bit of roundness at her face, her delicate head had a bit of soft brown hair, aside from that nose of Anita’s and Katherine Olson’s, the baby looked like a porcelain baby doll. Nothing like those celluloid dolls that Anita begged for, but would never get, both because her parents didn’t want her spoiled and because Daddy had a hard enough time keeping at least one steady job. The baby girl looked intensely at Anita and it seemed like her eyes moved a bit to look at the surroundings right in front of her. “The baby is staring at me!” Mr. Olson consoled, “Ah, she’s only a baby; everything is so new to her.” Soon she overheard her parents and grandparents argue over the issue of baptizing the baby, with an utterance of “you heathen” from one of her grandparents and her mother arguing bitterly. She peered at her new baby sister in the cradle, she was sleeping soundly and soon reached her little fingers to where Anita dangled her fingers, the baby grabbed Anita’s finger and held it close.

“It’s big day for my darling Peggy, no?” beamed the proud Mr. Olson. Having decided that a baby is too delicate for a name like “Margaret”, he nicknamed his youngest daughter “Peggy”, which provoked a nasty look from his normally amorous wife and jealously from Anita’s part. “Anita feels like an old lady’s name or like an old maid with a Dalmatian” fumed the young round-faced girl with auburn braids. There were various attempts made by her to be called “Ann” or “Annie” but this was made difficult by her family’s’ insistence on calling her by her birth name and the fact there are a few girls in school and at catechism with such a name. Baby Peggy looked very pretty in the altered white baptism gown handed down from Anita. This only made the older girl jealous, “even my old dress looks prettier on her than me”, even the new sunshine yellow dress and matching ribbons failed to cheer her and it was a dress she wanted for a long time. It had short sleeves, a lighter colored Peter Pan collar and a very bright and exuberant (as Mama called it) bow at the collar. With a look given by her father to behave, she sat in enraptured by the Mass where the Priest would sprinkle some Holy Water on the baby. Later came the time where the family was taking photos with the baby, soon it was her turn. Anita sat down and was given Baby Peggy to hold, the baby looked at her with wide blue eyes and a solemn look on her sweet face, Anita realized the baby was looking intensely at her own green eyes. “Look at the camera!” yells their mother, “No, I believe this shot is good enough,” so said their father.

Years and years later, Peggy and Anita would look at this picture and smile in the midst of the sibling chaos that permeated their lives.


	2. 1946

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Easter 1946. 
> 
> The first appearance of Gerry Respola. 
> 
> And Anita's thoughts on Easter 1962. 
> 
> Watch out for Gladys Bowman, the Avon Saleslady!

“You look bad in that dress.”

“Well you look worse.”

It was Easter Sunday and the girls just tried on each other’s bonnets and matching dresses for Mass, all sewn by their Mother and all very unflattering to them. They both were of a bright Easter egg color, with puffy sleeves, blouses, matching pastel gloves, matching hair ribbons holding their braided hair, and crinoline skirts; Anita was clad in bright blue with a white lace edged peter pan collar, a solid colored shoulder and clavicle piece, long puffy lace-edged sleeves and skirt in a baby blue color with a brighter blue plaid pattern and matching sash tied in the back. This was not suitable for a young lady of eleven. For seven year old Peggy, the dress just overwhelmed her tiny frame, was in several bright pinks with a collar that was peplum-like and edged with white lace covering her shoulders, short puffy sleeves with the same edging. The whole dress was in a solid bright pink and just highlighted how cuddly Peggy looked, Anita looked forlornly at herself: she was already a chunky young girl, her teeth stuck out some and her nose was quite large, most of the clothes she wore were already too matronly for her age or too juvenile.

Little Peggy looked at the dress: it was a bit too frilly and she really wanted to wear Anita’s blue, at seven she was already bringing home high marks for her penmanship and her creative writing, the Sisters at the school thought she could become some sort of writer or poet when she grew up, if she wasn’t a wife and mother by then. Peggy bristled at this statement, as much as she bristled at the idea that she couldn’t wear those shiny patent shoes because the Nuns said they’d reflect her underthings. Peggy liked reading her books and looking at the comics where she’d see all these pretty grown-up ladies have jobs away from home and in the city. She could go on adventures, travel, have boyfriends, be a typist, be a reporter, be a writer, and wear those patent shoes….

“Anita! Margaret! Get your behinds down here! We’re going to be late for Mass!” screeched their Mother. Katherine Olson fumed in her wide brimmed hat, two piece suit, and floral pussy bow sticking out, “will I ever get these girls to behave?” She saw her two daughters solemnly trudge down the stairs in their pastels while their mother muttered about one daughter not “eating enough” and her other “eating too much”. The girls both rolled their eyes at each other when their Mother wasn’t looking; it was going to be a long day and a long Mass where they didn’t understand most of the words.

There came the Easter egg hunt at the Church of the Holy Innocents, where Anita mostly lingered while she watched Peggy gather eggs, feeling that she was too grown up for such activities. Anita didn’t seem to have a lot of boys share an interest in her, no boy ever stopped and looked at her unless they wanted her to bake cookies for them, she counted the many things that she was told to change to attract them: her weight, her hair, her voice, to stop being so opinionated and outspoken, her attitude had to be more perky and less sarcastic, to act more “helpless” rather than lift some heavy-ish objects. All of which she found ridiculous (Peggy shared her sentiments with a tongue out). She thought of how some of the other girls her age were all talking with some boys from CYO, while for her not many seemed interested, the only boy that didn’t seem to be paired up was that older boy Gerry Respola. The gangly, bookish, bespectacled boy mostly hung at the side of his prudish mother with her nose in the air. Peggy onetime expressed sympathy for the boy:

“You like him! You want to marry him and have 20 babies with him!”

“No, you like him Anita! You’re going to marry him!”

“Shut up Peggy and give me that lipstick!”

“It’s mine! Mrs. Bowman said it’s my color and it doesn’t suit you!”

“I’m older and going to kiss boys first! It’s mine!”

“Mama!”

It was time for them to take pictures: the sisters gathered together in front of the bushes at the church courtyard where once again, their father took a nice picture of them in being thoughtful, with their bright eyes drawing focus. Years later, Anita looked at this picture and felt guilty, not like Catholic guilty or the sort of guilt her mother would provoke in her, but guilty because she did do something wrong. Her heart was filled with hatred and resentment at that moment, for her younger sister, she noticed Peggy’s face in the courtyard after Father Gill dropped a blue egg into her palm, it was the look of betrayal. Why did things go so bad? Why is she really mad at Peggy? Why is she, herself, so unhappy? Why can’t she let things be? Telling Father Gill about Peggy and that baby wasn’t going to change things. It wasn’t going to make her home more elegant, herself slimmer and more beautiful, wasn’t going to make Gerry more attentive and able-bodied, it wasn’t going to give her fulfillment, wasn’t going to make the boys more manageable, wasn’t going to make Ma less over-bearing, it wasn’t going to change things for the better.


	3. New Years Eve 1949

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the 1940s and the beginning of a new era for the Olson sisters.

“No ifs, ands, or buts, I want you two girls to go to sleep after 9:00”

Anita and Peggy fumed, it was New Year’s Eve and there was so much to do and see that night. Anita was only 14 but you wouldn’t know it from her braid, her short stature, and how juvenile the pinafore dress looked on her. She had one comfort: the Christmas green of the dress really suited her. The lace on the high neck cuff, the pinafore strap like cuffs on the front, and the cuffs at the sleeves were a bright green while the rest of the loose waist-ed dress had a matching belt to the full skirt and sleeves in a Christmas-y green. Her braid was fixed with a green of that latter color. She felt it really accentuated her coloring.

Peggy twirled around in her red dress; it really brought out her blue eyes and the shininess of her brown hair. The lace collar was a light red matching her sleeve cuffs and the bow and dress and buttons were a Christmas Red with a full skirt. Tonight the girls were given shoulder-length braids on the right side of their face. Katherine Olson surely outdid herself in creating these outfits.

It was soon after 11:30, the girls have been sitting up at their bed awaiting the New Year, Ma said they had to be in bed….she didn’t say they had to be asleep, Peggy thought about what a big girl she was: getting too old for dolls, had to be ladylike and stop trying to jump off the tree trunks (whatever they could encounter), had to take care of her hair whenever they went to Coney Island, she was a bit taller, and her writing was praised to high heaven in class. She wondered where she’ll be in the year 1960, she’ll turn 21 that year, it seemed far off and so alien to her. What will happen? Will she and Anita be able to have this much fun being allowed to stay up for New Year’s Eve? Will they be close? Will being a grown-up be easier?

Anita is a teenager now. She dreamed of a wedding, of prom, having babies, traveling, of doing whatever she wanted, of having a strong and handsome husband who will be as heroic as any leading man. But all that seemed far off, she felt too big, not feminine enough, not glamourous enough, and like her teeth needed fixing. It felt that Baby Peggy would get married first before she ever could. She said a silent prayer that she will prove everyone wrong, everyone who ever made her feel like no boy would want her, and that she’ll exceed everyone’s expectations.

“Happy 1950!” shouted the adults down the stairs.

Peggy and Anita turned to one another and grinned, this was something that Peggy managed to catch her girls doing whenever they had a secret or joke between one another, and she knew it was genetic. After all, the girls inherited her tolerance for the smell of massive hair product, both on themselves and on others. Also she and Anita observed this of the boys, it was a Godsend that there was a massive age difference between their children, imagine the conspiracy!


	4. 1954

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita's Wedding Day

“I can’t believe I let my future mother-in-law boss me around about my wedding dress.”

“I know you like your dresses to be modest,” said Peggy as she winced at the dowdy long (non-see through and non-lace) sleeves “but this is ridiculous.”

Old Mrs. Respola had nagged Anita into wearing this ridiculously modest gown in one fabric, it looked more like a glorified housecoat than a wedding dress. The fabric was thick and white with only a trim of delicate white lace at the cuffs and long lapels; the dress featured a modest neckline and long sleeves, the skirt was fashionably full but the waist was pinching. Anita felt more confident about the colors she chose for the wedding: Purple and Royal Purple, all for the flowers. Her crown had some purple wisteria blossoms and a see-through veil that reached down to her bosom. She thought to herself that she proved everyone wrong, everyone who thought she was too loud, caustic, and large to find a husband. Well look at her now, nineteen and marrying Gerald Respola, not a terribly striking or exciting man but a good, hard-worker who read and was an observant Catholic; it wasn’t easy, she did have to make herself appear demure than she actually is and put a smile on her face even if she didn’t feel like it. Things appear promising, the few times that she let her façade crack, or she just plain showed her ample appetite, Gerry let out a rare broad smile. She really hoped that he liked her, flaws and all, and she regretted leaving behind the friends and the sense of fulfillment she felt at her cashier job.

“What are you thinking about?” asked an amused and curious Peggy. The fifteen year old seemed to have been doing better, considering that she witnessed their father die a few years before. It was a terrible time, Anita could sense a bit of resentment on their mother’s part even as she repressed it, but she knew that Peggy could sense it and felt ashamed. There were some cut backs made economically: Katherine took up a part-time job to make ends meet, deciding not to rely on just her widow’s pension and Anita took an after-school job at one of the local department stores as a cashier, putting her love of mathematics to use. Peggy right now was a writing wunderkind who was excelling in her typing classes and at literature and poetry, aside from reading Jane Austen and helping out with the house, she tended to salivate over some purloined copies of the re-illustrated books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Pa Ingalls is remarkably handsome) and read some movie magazines and dreamed. Her dress was as modest and hid the compact curves she developed with its rounded bit trimmed with lace, puff sleeves, full skirt, and high neckline. She was wearing a headband made of the same blossoms as her sister, and like her sister, their make-up colors were a bit off and loud.

“Nothing, just dreaming of my wedding,” smirked Anita “and you need to improve that posture or else you wouldn’t find that TV Idol of yours!” She attempted to muss Peggy’s hair but found that the younger girl took her lead and lacquered her hair up to high heaven. The girls both decided to do each other’s make up and it looked rather bold, though nothing like the magazines they studied for the occasion. Pastel green shadow, berry pink rouge, and red lipstick for Anita while Peggy got Royal Blue light shadow, bright pink blush, and orchid pink lipstick. Looking back, the sisters found this all garish and laughed and argued over it.

“What are you two laughing about?!?” yelled a very displeased voice. The owner of said voice showed up and revealed herself to be Anita’s future Mother-In-Law and Gerry’s mother: Ciccia Respola. She could have been a beautiful woman if she scowled less: even at her middle age, her hair was still dark and lustrous. She had large dark eyes with thick lashes and brows, a casual observer wouldn’t have known she stayed indoors knitting and crocheting if they noticed her cappuccino-tinted complexion, she had straight white teeth that could be parted into a smile, and at her age she had a trim hourglass figure. She looked at Anita and Peggy and lamented the gap in the teeth her grandchildren will inherit, all in Italian. “This is a Holy day where Man and Wife will be joined, take this seriously or you no take my son as serious husband?” she barked at Anita. “I do take your son as a serious husband, after all I’m marrying him despite me having to put up with you,” thought Anita.

Peggy watched the wedding as Anita and Gerry (now tall and strong looking with a broad face and torso and having grown into his glasses) were lassoed together with the Rosary, stated their vows and were made Man and Wife. “This is the sweetest Anita ever looked,” gazing at how beautifully her sister had grown and how she beamed as Mrs. Anita Respola. It looked as though nothing would get in the way of Anita’s own happiness, not even old Ciccia hissing (not so subtlety) at Anita for taking a nice heaping slice of cake. Peggy gazed in admiration as Anita discreetly looked at Ciccina in the eye and took a large bite of the cake. “Will I ever be that brave?” asked the now only single Olson sister.


	5. 1959

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita's second pregnancy.

“Thanks a lot”

Anita sarcastically meant this after Peggy exclaimed how huge Anita got at just 5 months of pregnancy, this was her second pregnancy and she couldn’t wait for it to be over. She was irritated at everyone: her mother, her in-laws, her little boy Gerry Jr., Gerry, Peggy, the neighbors, and many things set her off. Peggy was recently attending Miss Deaver’s Secretarial School rather than head straight for one of the businesses in Brooklyn that could do with a simple high school diploma, she would either babysit or work a few hours at the donut shop, and she just moved out of their family’s house to an apartment with a girl she met at school. Anita was quite jealous of all this,  it seemed as though her shy little sister seemed to be getting her way with their mother, and she wasn’t to content herself to what life in Brooklyn would bring. Peggy mentioned how she wanted to go work in the City and maybe even become more than a secretary. She wanted to be one of those working girls that lived glamourous lives in the city and always partied and ate at the Automat, like in this one Joan Crawford movie that the girls recently watched. Anita was jealous, their mother was a bit aghast that her youngest was not specifically aiming for a nice boy from the neighborhood; she knew nothing much about those men that worked and lived in the City.

“I’m sorry,” pleaded Peggy “I just can’t believe it, you only got this big at 8 months the last time.” Anita looked at the much younger girl, she saw how sweet and earnest she looked with her ponytail, those bangs Peggy insisted were inspired by Debbie Reynolds and not First Lady Eisenhower, pink lipstick, cardigan sweater with floral appliques, and full skirt. It seemed so long ago that she was that young and less jaded by the adult world, Anita noted she even looked younger then, right now she is wearing her hair up in a style that made her look twenty years older and didn’t suit her large, round face and she was even wearing her pregnancy smock over a skirt. A look she considered quite dumpy, Anita wondered how such a smock would look with a less full skirt or even some slacks, but it took a brave woman to wear slacks, and it would be considered either unfeminine or just plain scandalous or worse, sinful; Peggy told her she saw some girls on film, the magazines, or even the “bad girls” from her old school wear them. But aside from those women, or the mannish women they’d occasionally see, they never saw a woman go out in slacks. “Can you imagine being able to run fast again like when we were little?” asked Peggy, clearly reading her sister’s mind about the slacks. Peggy also looked forlornly at the life her sister led: housework every day, scurrying to get dinner ready on time for when Gerry came home as if he couldn’t wait a few minutes or so, going to the market where she’d interact with the neighborhood busybodies, she saw that Anita barely opened the arithmetic textbooks she kept since she was young, her life seemed to center around serving both sides of her young family rather than focusing on herself and her needs and dreams, Gerry had back problems and didn’t seem satisfied with his job, Anita seemed more stressed out and her smiles seemed less genuine and felt. ‘

As Anita laughed with Gail Holloway, she found all those frustrations felt as a young woman seemed a million years ago. With Gail she found a kindred spirit, one she could confide in, be able to loosen up a bit (seemed like Holloway women did this with Olson Sisters), and beam with pride at their Madison Avenue relatives while making slightly old-fashioned and folksy clucking. Kind of like her and Peggy’s mother, although more flirtatious and quirky. The best part was that Gail knew everything Anita was going through, albeit she did it with one child and was working with a husband who didn’t possess half of Gerry’s good nature, now the two formerly frustrated and slightly less conservative hausfraus were finding some fulfillment: one as a company co-head and a grandmother taking trips to the Catskills and Florida, the other a mother of three teenage boys and a lucratively flexible job as a Avon lady. Just like Gladys Bowman.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy gets married to Stan. 
> 
> Anita's entire POV (some bits of this fic taken from Nikinou's "Be My Valentine", "Acapulco", "Breaking the News", and the "Making Plans" series.

“Did she…Is she coming?” asked Peggy while in her undergarments and rollers.

“No, Peggy. I’m sorry. But you know how she is. She is probably dying to be here, but she’s just too stubborn. I asked her ten times today if she would change her mind. Nothing. Just ridiculous. Life is short.” So said a somber Anita; it was Valentine’s Day, 1971 and Peggy was getting married to Stan Rizzo, a jocular and bearded art director she worked with for almost six years.

As she sat with Gerry and the boys, with Gail Holloway and little Kevin right behind them; she watched as her little sister walked down the aisle on the arm of Don Draper, Peggy’s decade long boss and the man whom Ma suspected was the father of Peggy’s baby. She stared at the middle aged man and saw him as handsome, like a Cary Grant or Tyrone Power; she doubted he would be the type to seduce a young girl from Brooklyn who was still wet behind the ears, no matter how cute she is. She saw how proud as punch Don looked with Peggy on his arm, like his daughter? Thought Anita, as she looked to her side and looked at his Nordic blonde daughter Sally, a young woman who was just a few years older than Junior and had dark strong brows, gold hair, brown eyes, a slim small-waisted figure, and a sassy yet thoughtful expression about her; Anita was grateful to the man (and the young girl for lending her father) but really wished Daddy was here to walk Peggy down the aisle… “Poor Pegs, at least Ma wasn’t bearing a ridiculous grudge on my wedding day”. Right after that, she thought about the woman who raised them, loved them, and guilt-tripped them. A woman who was not here.

Just before Halloween, Peggy and Stan had got engaged all of the sudden despite never dating, it seemed rash but Anita knew that Peggy did things differently than most girls her age. It was a bit painful: watching Stan being more affectionate with Peggy than Gerry has been for years (though Gerry seemed to be slightly trying a bit more recently), Peggy chose her old co-worker and work friend Joan Holloway Harris as her bridesmaid rather than Anita (Peggy explained that it’s due to their friendship and because Joan was planning the wedding and found the place for the reception at short notice after hearing from another old work friend), then Peggy and Stan revealed to the family that she got pregnant a good few months after they got engaged, Ma yelled that Peggy was an embarrassment and disappointment, Stan tried to be patient with Ma as did Anita (despite Ma insulting Italian Catholics to his face and in front of Gerry), and just when Ma hissed that she is ashamed and won’t attend the wedding…Stan did something that neither Gerry, she, Peggy, nor Daddy ever did: he looked Ma in the eyes and said "I know that you have a different view, and I respect that, but YOU are the one being hurtful here, not Peggy. This 'circumstance', 'condition', whatever you want to call this...this pregnancy...this is a child conceived in love. If you are truly concerned with what is good, what is right, it would be treating YOUR child with compassion, not contempt. But if you can't do that, then we will be on our way. We will always welcome you, but I won't have you insult Peggy again. Understand?"

Right now at the Church, she could only notice Peggy’s pleasure as she took her vows. Her little sister was so beautiful, standing beside her dazzling friend Joan (an intelligent, statuesque, voluptuous, classy redhead with an exquisite carriage and glow and standing in fire engine red silk that clung to her curves). Peggy carried a bouquet of red roses and wore a beautiful long designer white dress made of silk and lace. The gown had a look similar to Grace Kelly’s wedding gown but there were straps underneath the lace jacket to hold up Peggy’s fuller bosom, an empire waistline with ribbon and peplum to cover her rounded stomach. Peggy wore Anita’s pearls as her “something borrowed”, had a short veil with a kokoschnick tiara, her short bouffant was styled to look a bit wavy and tousled and her skin glowed with her brilliant blue eyes sparkling. “I’m not doing too shabby myself,” thought Anita. Like Gail, Sally, Gerry, the boys, and Stan’s family she was wearing blue. Her maxi gown had an empire waistline that looked a bit pointed at the bust with a flounce around the v neck, see through sleeves with lacy cuffs, a long floaty skirt, and was in a bright baby blue. She wore a nice matching hat on top that looked very fedora like, and wore a gold rose brooch on her left breast. Her red hair was down in a flipped up pageboy and framed her face.

            Anita thought that Ma would have loved the service, even if she didn’t show it and it wasn’t Catholic. As she looked on Peggy having the Father-Daughter dance, she thought about how the wedding was some metaphor for her and Peggy as sisters: it wasn’t perfect, but it was beautiful and carried some bits that the sisters picked up along the way growing up. In a sense, they are still growing.

**Author's Note:**

> Read Nikinou's fanfics all (I owe her a lot and this is why I credit her as co-author).
> 
> Title a reference to a song of Diana Ross of the same name.
> 
> Originated here http://toongrrl.deviantart.com/art/When-We-Grow-Up-604920782


End file.
